Monty Had a Good Plan!

[Phoenix100]

Ok. Cheers. I hadn't realised the bases had that much supply. I guess it would depend - in ammo terms - on how fierce the fighting was. My experience has always been continuous fierce fighting resulting in multiple, constant requests for emergency re-supply, leading very quickly to depleted base stocks. But, certainly your plan seems to be working!

The bases won't lose their jeeps now as they used to. The fixes Dave has put in certainly seem to work in that respect - all that happens now is that after two runs losing jeeps the base suspends supply to the unit. Hence no more jeeps lost trying to make impossible runs. Same result, as far as your planning goes, of course.

I will certainly mod it to tweak the objectives for the Axis, but first I have to play it through using your rough plan, make sure I too am capable of success!! And observe more closely what the Axis AI does and does not do.

[Fred Sanford]

I'm playing around with a mod right now that hopefully makes the Germans more aggressive. Changes so far are:
1. Kurt Student (1 FJ Army on map boss)had an aggressiveness of 'timid' (38%), which I changed to 'gung-ho' (70%).
2. Added Regimental bases to most German regts (NONE had regt bases). In the game for this AAR, I killed KG Tettau HQ fairly early, and it's base is the only base on the west side of the map, and serves all of the stuff that comes in from that direction. If the HQ gets killed, the base loses it's links to all those units, which probably ends up killing II SS Pz Korps base. I also added a 1 FJ Army base. This will add capacity and redundancy to the German supply network.
3. Added a German 10 point (0 completion (C)/10 occupation (O)) Arnhem bridge early occupation bonus VP loc that kicks in at midnight D1 to 2200 D4.
4. Added a German 11 point (1 C/10 O) Nijmegen bridge late holdout bonus VP loc that runs from D5 2300 (after the regular VP obj runs out) to D8 0000. This also has an Automatic End tag that terminates the scenario with decisive German victory. If XXX Corps hasn't taken the north bank of the Nijmegen bridge by then, they're getting stuffed, so might as well end it then.
5. Made the German VP locs at St Anna and Somerchem (outside Nijmegen) AI only.
6. Put a small AI VP loc under 1 FJ Army so hopefully it doesn't move down and try to be a tactical HQ.
7. Put an AI VP loc in Nijmegen that kicks in after the regular VP locs expire, so the AI stays interested (intended towards Korps Feldt).
8. Extended the expiration of the German VP locs at Groesbeek, Kleine V., Berg en Dal, and Beek from D5 2300 to end of game. Previously, after D5 2300, all of the German VP locs south of Nijmegen go away except for Mook, which leads to 'tunnel vision' on the part of the AI IMO.
9. Ditched the German VP loc at Wyler. After a surrender, saw that Germans were piled up there, holding a pointless VP loc.
10. Doubled the German VPs for casualties.
11. Made all the UK highway checkpoint VP locs AI only (no points), so an AI UK won't fritter away strength and concentrate on driving to Arnhem.
12. Advanced the activation time of UK AI locs surrounding Arnhem to game start- was D2 0800. Trying to get the AI to move on Arnhem.
13. Deleted the VP objective for the Allies at the 504th's LZ, it's not really threatened, and I don't want to make the AI waste strength. It also annoys me to have to move the 504th's base 200m to put it in the VP radius.

[Fred Sanford]

Getting back to the AAR, here's the attack of XXX Corps. Nijmegen, D3 1300. The 2 bn's of the Grenadier Guards are forming up SE of Nijmegen and attacking over the highway bridge and thru Lent. XXX Corps (!) is attacking from the south into Nijmegen and hopefully over. The SS are coming into Nijmegen over the RR bridge. I hope to get the Grenadier Guards over the highway bridge, and cut off the Germans in Nijmegen. The XXX Corps attack will develop more slowly, and put the Germans in a squeeze play.

[Fred Sanford]

ArnhemD3, 1300:
With supply lines on. Most everyone's on defense. When 4 AL Bde came in on D2, I sent them to attack into Arnhem to relieve 1 AL Bde, pretty much in the path I took previously. On the way, they ran into trouble at the intersection where 2nd Field Battery is now, by the D1 LZ. By the time they cleared that out, a bunch of German sailors wandered into my forest hideaway's perimeter. They're probably drunk and lost. So 4 AL Bde is up there dealing with them. I want to get them down to Arnhem to press the Germans there, though.

[Fred Sanford]

Five hours later, here's the attack developing. The Germans are over-committed to Nijmegen, and the Grenadier Guards are going to get behind them, across the river, while the 69th Bde and the 82nd AB CRUSH THEM!! Also, the Coldstream Guards have come in. I'm giving the rest orders and will send them across the river in the early morning. Same with others coming in.

[Fred Sanford]

What a difference a day makes! Lots of action, and I forgot to make saves for a full 24 hours.
The attack succeeded spectacularly. The last few Germans, mainly 10 SS's divisional artillery, are getting attacked by units of the 43rd Div, while the Div HQ and SPAT platoons move to Elst. 8th Armoured and 214th Bde's are taking up a defensive line that run from the villages by the lake NE to Huissen, overlooking the Rhine and sealing off the eastern portion of the land between the rivers, where another SS regt is expected shortly.
The Guards Armored, Grenadier Guards, and Coldstream Guards are about to set off for Arnhem, and an hour and 24 minutes made contact as shown in the OP.

[Phoenix100]

Looks great. I like all your tweaks. Can you upload the file in the mods forum, please. I'd like to run it.

[Fred Sanford]

Overall Situation D5, 2100. 27 hours after the last screen shot, the endgame is shaping up.
Up in Arnhem, 6th AB defends while XXX Corps shovels troops into Arnhem and starts expanding their control of the town. The Poles have landed, and have taken overwatch positions along the river while their engineer company and XXX Corps engineers build a new bridge at the RR Crossing.
In the center, 8th Armoured and 214th Bde are defending against futile attacks by the 22nd SS Pz Gren Regt. I'll let him wear himself out for a while, then I'll counterattack and destroy him. Welsh and Irish Guards, and the 129th Bde of the 43rd Div are resting up and will join the Arnhem battle in the morning.
Down south, the 82nd AB has re-deployed to the south after resting post-Nijmegen battle. I've got an engineer and armored car coy chasing down "leakers" in my rear. Meanwhile, 508th PIR, who suffered heavy casualties in Nijmegen, has moved to SE of Nijmegen to block the highway into town. 1/505 has moved down to support 2/505 in the Groesbeek area. The Mook area has gotten all of the 504th to come down and help 3/505, which had been in the hills overlooking Mook since the first day, while an engineer coy got the sh!t shelled out of it taking the Mook RR bridge and trying to hold it.

This will be the last ss of this game. The next 5 days were basically me grinding up the Germans in Arnhem, between the rivers and Mook. Sometime late D8/early D9, I maxed out the casualty VPs that I could get. So every kill after that was literally "pointless". I'll leave it to the reader to contemplate the Deep Philosophical Meaning of that.